Welcome little one

 Our second granddaughter arrived safe and sound yesterday afternoon. She was originally due to be delivered on the 4th December by C section at 39 weeks. That was brought forward to this Friday. Baby decided she wanted out at just over 38 weeks I believe.

It has been a hard and very uncomfortable pregnancy for DDinL who got through it stoically bless her. She was messed around by the hospital yesterday but eventually they did their job.

I am pleased to say she was a good size and has red hair, the same shade as her older sister and dad. Yay!

It sometimes feels as though the whole world

 Has gone CRAZY!

I don’t understand why, for example, the exchange of hostages between Gaza and Israel, is not equal. Why are so many being returned to Gaza, and so few to Israel? Seems very odd.

The Kosovo/Serbia border is under increasing tension. British soldiers are among those patrolling this fragile border.

Migrants galore are flooding into and through the EU. Russia it seems is pushing hard to be rid of them via the Finnish border, resulting in Finland closing most of that border. Poland, Greece, Italy are bearing the brunt of the initial waves, ourselves getting the second wave, along with other countries on route of course.

The African continent as usual, has many battles ongoing, as are certain countries in Asia. Don’t even get me started on all the marches and civil disturbances going on. Just because you have the right to free speech, doesn’t mean you have to abuse it and cause trouble, forcing your opinion down the throats of others. So many countries don’t have this privilege.

I reckon one thing in particular is present in most of it - testosterone! Let’s face it, how many females start wars? How many female dictators are there? How many females, in many countries have equal rights?

I have no idea what the answer is. It has been happening since the world began, in all species no doubt. What can be done if anything?

I sometimes think the only thing that might bring everyone together is an invasion from outer space!

I am beginning to realise….

 That the older I get, the more I feel the cold! I need more layers on inside the house and even more when outside.

My garden is calling for the last few jobs to be done but I can’t bring myself to wrap up and do them:( We are still gathering the last few carrier bags of leaf mould to put on the back flower border. Once that is done, maybe 3 more will be required for the smaller border. That will be it for now.

Extra thick marmalade

 Made my Christmas marmalade for presents. It didn’t set probably due to 6 tablespoons Cointreau in it!

Decanted it, added two fresh lemon ice cubes and chopped ginger and cooked for another 5 minutes. Seemed a lot better. Trialing a spoonful later on, it was very thick. Will have some tomorrow, on toast to see how well it spreads.

If too thick, I will make another batch but hopefully it will be fine.

I can finally hear and early Christmas!

 Yesterday, my problematic left ear was finally cleared by Lewis (got his name wrong). Lovely chap and very gentle. Ear drum still has a fine sheet of wax attached to it, which he reassures me will dry and drop off and make it way out. Hope he is correct.

I can honestly say we have never seen so many Christmas lights and decorations up inside and outside homes as this year. What is going on?

A first for us in the supermarket in a long time

We had to rush Ruby to the out of hours vets yesterday. Second time it has happened. Last year the charge was £190, this time £260 just to begin with:(

Her breathing wasn’t right and she seemed very uncomfortable in her throat area. The vet said her heart and lungs were fine but weren’t happy with her throat, recommending a general anaesthetic for a look see. Poor girl, she was not happy being there. 

Eventually we got a call to say she was in recovery. Nothing nasty found but hair was stuck in one tonsil, the hair was removed, and she had pharyngitis.

We picked her up. They had given her pain killing and anti inflammatory injections, and gave us pills for 3 days. She slept like a log, only rousing enough to eat sloppy chicken mince and rice!

Whilst waiting for her, we popped to the shop to buy said mince, just as the tannoy played ‘The Last Post’, for Armistice Day. It is quite something to witness an entire supermarket go silent and stand still. Just one child wailed in the distance somewhere.

We now aim to claim as much of the £970 bill as we can, from our insurance! I have never seen a dog cry before but when we got her home, tears came down her little face and she kept blinking them away as she nuzzled into us. Could of course be anything causing it but she seemed so sad:(

Yorkshire Puds and 'fried' eggs ...

 Trialling again yorkshire puddings in the air fryer:

12 minutes including fat warming time of two minutes. Next time, I will warm it for 3 minutes so it really sizzles when the mixture is put into the tins. Also might add another minutes cooking as they slightly deflated once removed.

Another trial was to cook eggs in it:

Cooked slightly too long but only a few minutes for a total of 4 eggs. Tasted fine and used less oil than normal, plus the cooker didn't get covered in fat from spitting eggs!

Bummer!

 First time failure on clearing out my ears via suction.  The woman seemed quite reluctant to try as I have thin ear canals which were very bunged up. Finally persuaded her to have a go and after a few attempts she cleared the right one. The left one was even fuller and she only got a bit out before it started to hurt!

The guy I normally get usually has no problems and I had used ear drops for two weeks in that ear as I knew it was bad.

Nope, she decided to refer me to Adam (whoever he is) as he is more qualified. Unfortunately, having been deaf in that ear for a few weeks, I wasn’t too happy to wait another 10 days but hey ho!

Roll on mid month when hopefully Adam will prevail.

It is something I have to have done on a very regular basis due to reduced ear canal size, overproduction of wax and dry skin:( It’s just annoying that most doctors surgeries have stop doing it so we now have to pay!